1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to stand up desks, and more particularly to a desk mounted vertically adjustable stand up desk.
2. Background Information
A 2008 Vanderbilt University Study of 6,300 people, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, estimated that the average American spends 55% of waking time (7.7 hours per day) in sedentary behaviors such as sitting. A 2010 American Cancer Society study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed 123,216 individuals from 1993-2006 and concluded that women who sat for over 6 hours per day were 94% more likely to die than those who were physically active and sat for less than 3 hours per day; men who sat for over 6 hours per day were 48% more likely to die than their physically active counterparts. A 2010 British Journal of Sports Medicine article also concluded people who sit for long periods of time have an increased risk of disease. A 2010 University of Queensland, School of Population Health study reported that prolonged periods of sitting can compromise metabolic health even in adults who otherwise meet physical activity recommendations. In recent years, as studies have come out sounding the alarm on the ill-effects of excessive sitting, the popularity of stand-up desks has soared.
Those who have read much of the coverage of this trend might be forgiven for thinking that standing to work constitutes a new hip fad. Yet as it is with many things, everything old is new again, as the stand-up desk was well known long before those in Silicon Valley made them the recent rage. The stand up desk has actually been used by a number of famous individuals for centuries.
A Brief History of the Standing Desk
Offices in the 19th century often had communal sitting/standing desks as opposed to individual desks for each employee. Old inventories of furniture from state legislatures and other government bodies during the 19th century often include an entry for stand-up desks. One industrial journal noted a gas company office environment in which the president of the company “stood near the centre of the room, behind a standing desk used by the weigher of the establishment.”
Thomas Jefferson, the first U.S. patent examiner (among his many achievements), is perhaps the most famous user of the stand-up desk. His six-legged “tall desk” had an adjustable slanted top that was large enough to place a folio. Jefferson used the desk to draw up brilliant architectural blueprints for buildings like the Virginia State Capitol.
President Jefferson was not the only head of state to favor the standing desk. Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck would be standing at his desk by five in the morning, ready to sort through all the proposals and business of the day. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill liked to lay out the galley proofs of his next book on a stand up desk, also called an “upright desk,” and pore over them, looking for needed corrections.
Many authors felt like standing up to work got their creative juices flowing. Charles Dickens used a stand up desk, as revealed by the description of his study by a visitor: “books all round, up to the ceiling and down to the ground; a standing desk at which he writes; and all manner of comfortable easy chairs.” Ernest Hemingway discovered the standing desk method from his editor at Charles Scribner's Sons, Maxwell Perkins. In Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir, A E Hotchner describes Hemingway's set-up in his home in Havana: “In Ernest's room there was a large desk covered with stacks of letters, magazines, and newspaper clippings, a small sack of carnivores' teeth, two unwound clocks, shoehorns, an unfilled pen in an onyx holder, a wood carved zebra, wart hog, rhino and lion in single file, and a wide-assortment of souvenirs, mementos and good luck charms. He never worked at the desk. Instead, he used a stand up work place he had fashioned out of a bookcase near his bed. His portable typewriter was snugged in there and papers were spread along the top of the bookcase on either side of it. He used a reading board for longhand writing.”
In addition to a desire to emulate Jefferson, Bismarck, Churchill, Dickens, Hemingway and other luminaries who have used stand up desks, there are, as suggested above, a number quantifiable benefits to the practice.
1. Increasing Life Expectancy
As noted above several studies have linked passivity to increased mortality. Another recent study found that men who sit for more than six hours of their leisure time each day had a 20% higher death rate than those who sat for three hours or less. The epidemiologist who conducted the study, Alpha Patel, concluded that excessive sitting literally shortens a person's life by several years. A further recent study concluded that men who sat for 23 or more hours a week had a 64% greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours per week or less. Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center reviewed numerous studies and concluded that those who sit all day at work were 54% more likely to die of a heart attack.
It has been suggested that sitting is the ultimate passive activity, and that one burns more calories chewing gum than when one is merely slouching in a chair. When sitting it has been suggested that the electrical activity in the muscles flat lines, and the body consequently uses very little energy. Powering down the body like that for long periods of time can lead to a cascade of negative effects. Heart rate, calorie burn, insulin effectiveness, and levels of good cholesterol all drop. The body also stops producing lipoprotein, lipase and other molecules that are only released when flexing muscles, such as when standing and/or walking. These molecules play an important role in processing fats and sugars and without them, the body's metabolism suffers. Add these factors up, and it's no wonder that those who sit for long periods of time each day have larger waistlines and worse blood sugar and blood pressure profiles and are at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer than who sit less.
2. Weight Loss
As mentioned above, when one sits, the heart rate and calorie burn go down. Weight gain typically creeps on gradually from consuming a few too many calories here and there, and slowing down in small ways as we age. One individual test with a heart rate monitor found that the subject's heart rate was 10 beats higher when standing than sitting and the subject burned 54 calories in an hour of sitting as opposed to 72 in an hour of standing. A British study from the University of Chester found standing to burn 42 more calories per hour compared to sitting.
3. Improvement in Back and Neck Health
White collar workers often experience back pain which stems from not using their backs enough. Years of slouching in a chair may take a substantial toll. Standing up engages your back muscles and improves one's posture. Anecdotally, many folks who have made the switch to a stand-up desk have reported that the change cured their back pain. The REP Biometrics Lab in Bend Oreg. concluded that people who sit more are at greater risk for herniated disk and strained cervical vertebrae in the neck leading to permanent imbalances. A 2011 Health Partners study indicated that 75% of people felt healthier overall after standing at work.
4. Improvement in Focus and Concentration
Standing increases one's focus and concentration in several ways. First, a standing individual is less likely to become drowsy and with the muscles engaged the individual stays alert. Second, standing allows the individual to be more active, shift from one leg to another, and pacing as desired, releasing restless energy and improving focus and concentration. A study released by Office Ergonomics Research Committee found a 17.8% productivity gain when employees are supplied with ergonomic furniture, such as a standing desk.
5. Improvements in Sleep
It has been acknowledged than many who begin using a standing desk find they gain a satisfying overall tiredness by the end of the day allowing them to fall asleep fast at the end of the day and quickly move into a restful sleep state. The Office of Obesity Solutions at the Mayo Clinic has further suggested that sitting for long periods of time slows blood circulation and causes fluid to pool in the legs that can lead to restlessness and loss of sleep.
These are merely some of the well known quantifiable advantages offered through a stand up desk. Numerous other studies and insights can be found in the art as can be found at, for example, www.juststand.org, and other articles addressing the “sitting disease.”
Combined Stand Up Desk and Sit Down Desk
The field has tried to address the desire for a stand up desk combined with desire to maintain a sit down desk. FIG. 1 illustrates an 1886 desk design attributed to inventor Pohl, published in Scientific American, in which a standing desk 10 and a sitting desk 12 were combined in a back to back fashion. FIGS. 2A and B illustrate a sitting desk 14 believed by an inventor Kottmann, suitable for students (the front of a desk 14 includes a folding chair for the student at a desk 14 immediately in front), that converts to a standing desk shown in FIG. 2B. FIG. 3 represents a commercially available convertible sit down desk to stand up desk design (available from ERGOTRON) in which a desktop surface 16 is vertically adjustable via telescoping legs 18. See also the moveable table design of U.S. Patent Publication 2007-0163475, table with variable configurations of U.S. Pat. No. 7,201,108, vertically adjustable school desk of U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,120, table with moveable surface of U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,052, convertible table of U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,452, convertible table of U.S. Pat. No. 2,913,122, the vertically shiftable platform for office furniture of U.S. Pat. No. 2,630,359, and the adjustable table of U.S. Pat. No. 780,829 which are all incorporated herein by reference. However all of these designs are impractical for the user (or often an employer) that does not want to scrap their existing sit down desks.
Some have designed conversion units that clamp to or around select desk surfaces that add an adjustable monitor support, but these are likewise impractical for those that do not desire to bolt or clamp a unit to their existing desk.
FIG. 4 illustrates a prior art desk 20 mounted stand up or sit down desk 22, described in detail in U.S. Patent Publication 2008-0203865 which is incorporated herein by reference, that sits on a platform 24 supported on the top of the conventional desk 20 and with a separate adjustable keyboard support 26 extending in front of the desk 20. The design is easy to install on a desk 20 but the scissor jack type lifting mechanism between the platform or base 24 and the desk 22, and other design aspects of this invention, minimizes the useful usable surface of the desk 20. Note where the user is located relative to the original desk 20 in either the sitting or standing position.
FIG. 5 illustrates a prior art desk mounted stand up or sit down desk 32, described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,671,853 which is incorporated herein by reference, that sits on a platform 34 supported on the top of the conventional desk 20 (not shown here). This adjustable desktop workspace is disclosed having two pivoting arms mounted between the platform 34 or base and the desk 32, with each pivoting arm having a front and rear bracket. Additionally there are also two stabilizing bars to limit side-to-side relative movement, and a biasing spring between the front and rear brackets to aide moving the upper platform. This design is also easy to install on a desk 20 but the pivoting arm lifting mechanism between the platform or base 34 and the desk 32, and other design aspects of this invention, minimizes the useful usable surface of the desk 20.
In the platform supported desk mounted vertically adjustable stand up desks of the prior art represented in FIGS. 4 and 5 it is difficult to adjust the height of the monitor relative to the desk surface limiting the utility. Additionally these designs usurp too much desk surface which severely limits their application in practice. Many people do not have clear desk spaces that could easily implement the system and implementing a new system becomes less likely if one must undergo a spring cleaning of their desk to adopt the new unit.
It is an object of the present invention to address the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above and to do so in an efficient, cost effective manner to provide a desk mounted vertically adjustable stand up desk that allows a conventional desk to be easily and quickly converted to a stand up desk for the user without detrimentally effecting the desktop surface or requiring bolting or clamping to the desk. Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a perusal of the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention.